


Checkmate

by osmia_avosetta



Series: Friendly Competition [1]
Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Bromance, FCN 27 August 2016, Fandot Creativity, Gen, I picked chess for this one, prompts: BST and/or chess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 10:34:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7887907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/osmia_avosetta/pseuds/osmia_avosetta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two friends playing chess, the stakes high, the game intense. A one-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Checkmate

Douglas reckoned that nobody, absolutely _nobody_ in the world had done what he was doing at the moment.

_Clack._

He set down his bishop firmly on a dark square and leaned back, strategically eyeing his opponent.

The woman in front of him concentrated hard on the chessboard between them, idly tapping one espadrille sandal on the table. She’d taken off her shoes, claiming that it helped her to concentrate, but in reality she’d been tapping her right sandal on the little table for the majority of the game. It drove Douglas absolutely insane, but he kept quiet.

_This_ is _the Princess of Liechtenstein we’re talking about,_ he reasoned mentally. _And I think that no commoner_   _has_ ever _been able to play chess against her._

Theresa wrinkled her nose in concentration, staring at the chess pieces, trying to reason out a way to capture his king. Douglas felt pretty confident about this game: he’d opened strongly and managed not to lose too many of his pieces. Theresa, meanwhile, had allowed him to capture four of her pawns, a knight, and a rook. In his opinion, Theresa was in a worse position than he at the moment.

Suddenly, with a movement as sleek and quick as a kingfisher, the princess leaped forward and moved her queen to capture his bishop. She sat back in satisfaction, amber eyes gleaming.

“Might not have been the best idea,” Douglas advised Theresa. “You’ve just used your most valuable piece to capture one that’s not that valuable at all.”

“Check,” she announced smugly and with a gentle toss of her wavy, short brown hair.

Douglas, shocked, looked down. Indeed, she’d placed her queen so that she was very threateningly staring the king in his face.

“That you have,” he muttered, slightly irked, and moved his rook to the king’s side to threaten Theresa’s queen.

“Ha,” Theresa said gleefully, and Douglas knew he’d done the wrong thing.

A few seconds later, Douglas’s king clattered to the floor, and a princess jumped up into a standing position on her chair.

“Checkmate!”

Douglas looked up at the triumphant princess and sighed in defeat. 

“Fine, you can take the Camembert. Just…don’t tell Martin about this, will you?”

“You have my word.”


End file.
